The Big Merger: What does it mean for Australian Media?
The Fairfax-Nine merge and the uncertain future of the ABC have shaken the media industry in the past few weeks but journalists at Storyology 2018 are confident in the future of Australian media.
Editor of Fairfax publication The Brisbane Times Danielle Cronin says the merger may set the precedent for more mutually beneficial arrangements in the future.
“The changes to the cross media ownership laws have definitely opened up the opportunity for more collaboration,” Danielle said.
“We’ve already seen it on an ad hoc basis with industries collaborating on investigative pieces and it’s likely we will see more of that.”
Danielle said that whilse the media industry is changing it is all about maintaining a reliable source of news.
“Fairfax and Nine each have their own strengths to bring to the table, the challenge for every media outlet is to find the right model,” she said.
“At the end of the day it’s all about funding that great journalism that we all love to do.”
The ramifications of the sudden merger announcement this week has been the main topic of conversation for participants at the festival.
Editor of Guardian Australia Lenore Taylor is confident that, despite commercial mergers, government funded companies like the ABC will remain prominent in Australia.
“There’s always a role for public broadcasting and part of that role is spending on things that may not return commercially,” she said.
“It’s important to cover communities that don’t have enough people to be a commercial proposition and I strongly defend the role of public broadcasting.”
